Duck at Bayswater

I have a bag from Mulberry called the Bayswater.

It's only after having that bag that I realised Bayswater is the name of a tube station in London. Bayswater is an area of west London in the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.

And Bayswater is famous for delicious roasted duck!

There are 2 famous stores in Bayswater - Four Seasons Duck and Gold Mine. Both are Chinese restaurant, selling mostly Cantonese food. Many in will direct you to one of the 2 restaurants for Peking Duck or Crispy Aromatic Duck.

During my last trip to London, I went to Gold Mine because a colleague said that the original chef from Four Seasons has gone to Gold Mine.

So we decided to brave the cold one weekend in London and travelled all the way to western London for some Chinese food.

We ordered the famous Crispy Aromatic Duck, Cantonese roast duck, fried beef kway teow, tofu and vegetables.

The food was good, although I've had much better duck (See this post on my favourite Peking duck from Dadong in Beijing).

But I must say the overall quality was very good and it's amazing how good Chinese food taste after a whole week of cold sandwiches and salads..

Random Shots around London

Some random shots I took around London. I'd let the photos do most of the talking for this post.

Bus in a park

Guard at Buckingham palace

The red telephone booth - I am reminded of Superman and the Matrix

Downing Street - too bad I didn't see any Prime Minister but I was watching out for rats! 

(Remember the CNN video with a rat dashing across the front door of the Prime Minister's office?)

A gate to an English garden. I feel mysterious already.. 

Will I spot a rabbit with a vest?

British museum - A fascinating place to visit

A residential block near Oxford street. 

Check out the unit with those blooming roses on the third floor!

Sunset in spring

Oxford - A Picturesque Town

Oxford is a famous university town about 2 hours by train away from London. Even if you have never heard about the famous university, you'd have heard of Oxford English Dictionary.

A few colleagues and I did a day trip to Oxford on a Saturday. We opted for the easy way out - we took a hop-on-hop-off bus around town and got off at a few stops to explore the beautiful English town. The weather was great that day so the whole town was swamped with tourists.

I found Oxford, with its multiple campuses - big and small, a very pretty and photogenic town.

Christchurch - apparently the dining hall here is the inspiration for the dining hall in 

Harry Potter's Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

The beautiful manicured lawn of Queen's College

My favourite shop in Oxford - Alice's shop!

Neat looking streets! 

It was a beautiful day for the great outdoors!

Long Days and Dinner at 9

Sometimes, I wonder if living in a country with 4 distinct seasons is a good thing.

In Singapore, the temperature hovers from around 28 deg C to 32 deg C mostly. 27 would be "cold" in Singapore, 34 or 35 would be "too hot". And the Mr sun rises at about the same time every morning here.. and retires to bed about the same time as well.

The weather in Singapore suits me fine since I don't like winters. But there are some seasons I like.

For example, I think spring is a pretty nice season. This trip in London, I experienced the nicest English weather. Bright and sunny with just the right temperature outdoors for picnics.

And it's great to have the sun set at 9:30pm. The sky is bright after work.. still bright after some drinks.. and right after dinner at 9pm, the sun starts to set in the horizon.

The long days put me in a very good mood all week in London, in spite of work. Somehow it feels that I have got more than 24 hours in my day.. and that feels like a steal!

Gordon Ramsey's The Narrow

The Narrow is a pub cum restaurant at Limehouse, a place about 1 DLR (light rail) station away from Canary Wharf.

I wanted to go there for a meal when I found out that Gordon Ramsey owns this place. Of course, he owns many other restaurants which I'd love to go to as well.. but this place is so near where I stayed in London I felt I have to go.

The Narrow is a pretty popular place and it can get really quite crowded during the weekends. Overall, I wouldn't say the food there is particularly amazing.

I was there on Sunday for dinner so I tried their Roast Chicken with potatoes fried in goose fat. The potatoes were sinfully good but the roast chicken was very passe. The skin was crispy and sauce was great but the meat just wasn't tender enough for me.

Dessert was good too but really nothing to shout about - we tried brownies with vanilla ice-cream and bread and butter pudding with walnut ice-cream.

I did enjoy the Pear cider a lot though - and a great view of Thames River as the sun is setting.

The Narrow
44 Narrow Street
London E14 8DP
Tel: (44) 020-7592-7950
http://www.gordonramsay.com/thenarrow/findus/

Fish and Chips

I love Fish and Chips - especially if the fish is fresh, the batter thick and crispy. I don't particularly like your typical thick-cut fries that comes with Fish and Chips, but the restaurant will score well if they serve Fish and Chips with mashed green peas and homemade tartar sauce - like this pub at Canary Wharf.

I was so glad to have Fish and Chips in the home of Fish and Chips - United Kingdom. (Hm... some would argue it is Australia actually.. )

What's your favourite place for Fish and Chips? The one I like in Singapore is at the Serangoon Gardens market - no mashed green peas and fancy fries, but the fish is usually very good.

Harrods - a truly English Institution

Harrods is a most amazing department store. It is truly one-of-a-kind - extremely difficult to find your way around (All the sales people asked if I needed directions to me next destination. Every single one.), has the most opulent looking decorations indoors (especially the Egyptian escalators) and has a  breathtaking array of products on sale (From wedding gowns, to grandfather clocks to food. The food department is especially amazing - see pictures below.)

I think it can be ranked as one of the top tourist destination for London, right alongside Buckingham Palace and the British Museum. And indeed tourists swarm this place. The number of people picking out reusable Harrods shopping bags and bears is really quite staggering. Personally, I don't see what is so special about the 19 pounds plastic shopping bag but maybe it is just me because there were lots of tourists buying such bags.

Going to Harrods always gives me a slight headache afterwards but I really do enjoy gaping at the selections available. This trip, I also found that if you know what it is that you want to buy, it is a very good place to buy from - Harrods do stock up rather well and the VAT-back processing service in Harrods is first class.

Photo from here

 

Even the selection of fresh flowers and small potted plants is pretty good..

And of course, there is always a few of these giant 

Harrods bears on sale. This one cost about 1900 pounds (!!)

Canary Wharf

Canary Wharf was where I was at in London for the whole 2 weeks. I stayed in an apartment at Canarf Wharf, worked in one of the buildings there.. and had my dinners nearby every single night. Except for the weekend and a night when I visited a friend, I never had to take the tube.

Canary Wharf is a major financial district in London and contains many of the UK's tallest building. Being business district, it is very busy in the day and somewhat deserted and quiet in the evenings and weekends.

However, there is some shopping around that area and a very good selection of pubs and restaurants, which makes it still a nice place to stay. Not a bad place at all to stay if you visit London.

For me, the best part about staying at Canary Wharf was that I could walk to work. This really makes a difference because it meant I could go in to work easily at an early hour. But it also meant I ended up starting my day at around 7am in the office every day! I even got in one day at around 640am!

The buildings and banks at Canary Wharf

 

The apartment I stayed at in Canary Wharf

Scones and Tea at Covent Garden

This trip to London, I had one weekend to do a bit of sight-seeing and a whole lot of shopping.

I don't remember when I last shopped so much! I basically spent the entire Saturday shopping. It was a classic "shop til you drop" kind of day - I hit the shops really earlier at around 10am and staggered back to the apartment with extremely sore legs at around 6pm.

So I decided to spend the Sunday in a leisurely manner. I went down to London bridge to visit to famous food market - the Borough market. Alas, it was closed when I got there. The Borough Market is closed on Sunday and I should have known better and checked before I went. The closed market looked so interesting that I promised myself I would be back!

There are stalls selling truffles, homemade jams, handmade breakfast cereals, artisan breads, homemade fudge, coffee, fruits and vegetables. Honestly, just walking around the market made me hungry. Their website is also beautiful and I've already narrowed down on all the shops I want to visit when I'm there! I was kicking myself for missing out on visiting this market for something as commonplace as shopping..

But then I decided to visit a place I know was open on Sunday - Covent Garden. I have always liked the festive feel of Covent Garden, and was certainly not disappointed when I got there. There were interest shops and stalls selling different kinds of knick knacks and I thoroughly enjoyed my Sunday morning. 

I ended my very pleasant morning in true English style - scones with clotted cream and blueberry jam.. with English Breakfast tea! The bakes at Le Pain Quotidien is really good and I'd highly recommend you to visit it if you go to Covent Garden. I wished I've brought home a dozen bottles of their jam with me.

There's always lots to see at Covent garden - quirky street performances, 

street opera (the lady singing in the top right picture) and lots of interesting handmade crafts

The shops at Covent Garden had beautiful window displays

A huge scone.. with the loveliest clotted jam and blueberry jam

I don't usually like jam - but this one was especially good. 

Fruity and not too sweet!

The tea was very good as well - and it came with a small pot and 

a HUGE bowl that you are supposed to use as a cup.